


The Incident

by tehkittykat



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-16
Updated: 2013-07-16
Packaged: 2017-12-20 09:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/885713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehkittykat/pseuds/tehkittykat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All you need to know is Tronzler is now the AI of a giant robot. (Yup, it's another Tron/Pacific Rim mashup.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Incident

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in-universe with [Like You Want to Win](https://archiveofourown.org/works/885370).

It’s bad. They’re losing.

The kaiju is strong, and worse it’s got some kind of bioelectric system. It can transfer pulses of current into Firewall’s systems, leaving AI and pilots dazed and an opening to attack. They fight back, though. They _must_ —they are the only ones left in the Shatterdome today, others in transit thanks to the reorganization that the PPDC insisted on. Backup is coming, insists the comm, but right now they are all that stands between Seattle and the monster.

There are cracks in its armor now, the hard plates shattering under the force of Firewall’s blows, and satisfaction curls through the Drift. They will defeat it.

They don’t notice the leak in the window. Seawater has dripped in—the kaiju hits hard enough to cause micro-leaks. It’s usual and annoying, and the implications don’t sink in right away. Not until the creature wraps tentacles around Firewall’s head.. where the cockpit is.

The current arcs through the jaeger, and suddenly Tron is _alone_.

There are vitals. There is a heartbeat in both Flynn and Alan-One, but their mental processes have shorted and the kaiju is leaning in to bite _now_. Its jaws are strong enough to saw through the metal of the jaeger’s body… maybe not right away, but backup is far and neither pilot is in any shape to resume operations.

Mission control is yelling into the comms, but Tron can’t answer them. Control of the jaeger belongs to the two pilots, now strapped inert, and Tron’s function is merely to link and coordinate, to bridge the gap between the massive robot and the fragile humans. He cannot pilot the jaeger alone…

But if he doesn’t do _something_ , his pilots will die and then the kaiju will be able to tear through the city at his back.

\---

In the Shatterdome, the command center went quiet.

Firewall shifted, metal groaning under the weight of the kaiju as its arms rose and gripped the jaws trying to close on the cockpit. It held the monster’s mouth open, pushing harder and harder until there was a _crack_ audible over the communications line and the kaiju pulled away, lower jaw hanging uselessly.

“Holy—“ one of the techs murmured, but Lora shushed him before he could start up. Everyone was able to read the status screens—the monitors showed the Drift wasn’t active, both Alan and Flynn deeply unconscious. She’d swear that the monitors were lying, except that the comm line was open too, and instead of hearing her husband and his friend bickering over the wisdom of the move, there was only a strange, stuttery purr that sounded for all the world like a broken hard drive.

They could only watch as the jaeger seemed to shake itself, maneuvering as it had a hundred times before to close the distance with the kaiju. Firewall’s running lights were dimmed, reddish light showing from its visor instead of the normal blue, eerie in the dark of twilight. The kaiju started to recover, but Firewall was ready for it, blocking a blow and dancing into it with a lightness that one would never expect from something so big. Firewall twisted and pulled, dislocating the kaiju’s arm.

“Do we have anything from the pilots?” Marshal Gibbs said quietly, but his eyes were glued to the screen showing the battle as well.

“N-negative, sir,” Roy said, his gulp audible.

Firewall kicked the kaiju, and even Lora winced as it yanked the already dislocated limb. The jaeger couldn’t quite tear it off, but switched quickly to grabbing the wrist and using the kaiju’s own heavy claws to punch its head. The water swirling around them was soon stained blue, the creature’s struggles getting more and more uncoordinated as Firewall hammered at its head with single-minded intensity.

For the first time, the command room was utterly quiet as the kaiju twitched its last, the only noise being the broken purr emanating from the speaker.

Firewall stumbled backward, knees colliding with one of the piers from the port behind it. The jaeger half-caught itself before it shuddered all over and locked, falling half-in and half-out of the water. Feedback squealed over the communications line before it went completely dead.

“Emergency team and medical evac. Yesterday, people,” Gibbs said shakily, snapping the room out of its collective trance.

\---

Tron can tell they are frightened—he doesn’t need the Drift for that. He stays quiet and stays still and gives the techs full access even though nobody will dare link to him and they are careful not to mention his pilots when they are in range of audio pickup. They can’t believe what happened. Tron can’t quite believe it himself.

There’s a rumor that he will be taken offline, maybe for study or maybe because he is dangerous. The rumors are hard to sort out. He misses Alan and Flynn.  They are alive—they have to be alive, they were alive when the medevac team extracted them—but they won’t see him and that is worrying. Alan wrote him—shouldn’t Alan be running diagnostics too? Or did he overstep some sacred line and disappoint his programmer?

It’s hard to tell, and it is so miserable to calculate that he does not at first notice that he is not alone.

The quicksilver mind is easy to identify. It is LoraB, Alan’s wife. She is wearing the thinking cap, and the bay is empty, all the techs attending to the new jaegers that are assigned to the ‘dome.

He sends her a wordless apology, for the fuss he’s caused.

“Don’t be sorry, Tron,” she murmurs, “I doubt anyone else will say it, but… _thank you_ for bringing them home alive.”


End file.
